Haywood hospice volunteer training planned for March 19-22

In-depth volunteer training for hospice and palliative care will be held this month at Lake Junaluska First Baptist Church on March 19-22.

This twelve-hour program will orient volunteers to the hospice philosophy and program and hospice volunteering. The essence of hospice philosophy is quality of life, allowing the patient and family to spend the last days together with dignity, with control over their situation, and as free from pain as possible. Hospice volunteers are an integral part of the hospice team in providing support and bereavement services to patients and their families in an end-of-life setting in our community. Pre-registration is required.

The Naturalist's Corner

I had originally intended to spend today (Monday, Feb. 16) doing a couple of short surveys for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. But Sunday morning amid more and more (and more and more dire) weather forecasts warning of some pretty heavy winter weather coming our way I began to contemplate counting Sunday instead. Around 9 a.m. Sunday I peeked out the downstairs window. Well, in my yard were 17 wild turkeys. It looked like a large group of jakes and gobblers.